Mr Michael Meacher (Minister of State (the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham West & Royton, Labour)

On a point of order, Mr. Amess. Would it be convenient if I were to respond to the point made this morning in relation to amendment No. 13? With your agreement, I shall comment now, because we have moved past that group of amendments.

The hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) asked about the interpretation of clause 10(2)(d), which requires the monitoring authority to

''notify the allocating authority for the area of any case where it appears to the monitoring authority that a waste disposal authority . . . is or may be liable to a penalty''.

He was concerned that the use of ''may be'' in that provision meant that the monitoring authority would have to inform the allocating authority if it predicted that the disposal authority might, in future, breach its allowances. I can assure the hon. Gentleman—I have had it checked—that that is not the case. The word ''may'' is used to cover the situation in which, for example, there is a dispute about how much biodegradable municipal waste has been sent to landfill that would require further investigation, such as checks with the landfill operator, or that would require the allocating authority to take a decision. However, it must appear to the authority that the disposal authority is or could be currently liable and not that it could potentially become liable. That would be an absurd reading, given the possibility of trading.

Put another way, the requirement would be to notify the allocating authority in cases in which it appears to the monitoring authority that a WDA has or may have become liable to a penalty. I hope that that clarifies the situation for the hon. Gentleman.

Mr David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

That is perfectly in order.

Mr Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)

Further to that point of order, Mr. Amess. I thank the Minister for having taken the trouble to investigate the matter with his colleagues. Whether or not the word is open to ambiguous interpretation, the Minister's comments are on the record, and that will be useful if anybody wishes to refer to the point.

Mr David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

That is a splendid start to the afternoon's proceedings.Clause 10 Monitoring authorities